Allegorie op de Romeinse geschiedenis 1793

Ludwig Gottlieb Portman made this print, "Allegory on Roman History," sometime before his death in 1828. In it, we see a classically styled woman sitting in front of a temple, holding a winged figure in her left hand, with classical iconography surrounding her. The image creates meaning through references to the visual codes of classical antiquity. Made in the Netherlands, the print reflects the late 18th- and early 19th-century obsession with ancient Greece and Rome. The Dutch Republic, before its collapse in 1795, saw itself as the inheritor of republican Rome. The image thus presents Rome as the foundation for contemporary European states. Its classicism is self-consciously conservative; it recalls an imagined past of political stability. Historians look at visual codes and cultural references to understand how such artwork was understood by its contemporary audience, using resources such as political pamphlets and newspapers to understand the relationship between this print and the political context in which it was made.